The cover from the Dec. 4 issue of Rolling Stone, which contained the story about the alleged gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house in 2012. Rolling Stone is rolling back its explosive story on campus rape.
The esteemed music mag apologized Friday, saying they have found holes in the account published last month of University of Virginia student Jackie, who told the magazine she was gang raped by several frat boys during a September 2012 party.
The account was immediately hammered by critics, who attacked reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely for failing to contact the alleged attackers, members of the university’s Phi Kappa Psi chapter.
In a statement released by the magazine’s managing editor, Will Dana, he said he couldn’t explain the “unsettling” discrepancies “between Jackie’s account and the counter statements made by Phi Psi.”
But he did take full responsibility for them, and asked that no blame be placed on the student.
“We made a judgment – the kind of judgement [sic] reporters and editors make every day. And in this case, our judgement [sic] was wrong,” he posted on Twitter Friday.
“We should have either not made this agreement with Jackie … or worked harder to convince her that the truth would have been better served by getting the other side of the story. That failure is on us – not on her.”
Ryan M. Kelly/AP People gather with signs during a protest at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville on Nov. 22 after the explosive story came out. In an earlier post on the Rolling State website he explained that they chose not to contact any of the men Jackie claimed participated in the attack to honor a request made by Jackie who feared they'd retaliate against her.
"In the months Erdely spent reporting the story, Jackie neither said nor did anything that made Erdely, or Rolling Stone's editors and fact-checkers, question Jackie's credibility," he stated before later adding: “Our trust in her was misplaced.”
“We were trying to be sensitive to the unfair shame and humiliation many women feel after a sexual assault and now regret the decision to not contact the alleged assaulters to get their account. We are taking this seriously and apologize to anyone who was affected by the story,” he continued.
The Washington Post had interviewed Jackie, who asked for anonymity to protect her identity in speaking out, for a potential story. During those meetings, according to the newspaper, Jackie stood by her account given to Rolling Stone.
She told the magazine the sickening attack took place just four weeks into her freshman year at a “date-function” thrown by the frat.
A junior who invited the victim to the shindig led her upstairs to a pitch-black room. Once inside the room, the woman detected movement, the article says.
In a flash, she was tripped, sending her crashing through a glass table. Then, she was pinned down and raped by a gang of some seven drunken, pot-smoking frat pledges, the article says.
One of them even violated her with a beer bottle as the sweaty mob egged him on.
The victim eventually reported the rape to school administrators, the article says. But they took no action — even after she reported allegations from two other women who claimed to have been assaulted the same way by members of the same fraternity.
“I never asked for this” attention, she told the Washington Post in an interview. “What bothers me is that so many people act like it didn’t happen. It’s my life. I have had to live with the fact that it happened every day for the last two years.”
But the fraternity chapter plans to issue a rebuttal to the article Friday after determining no party was held the night in question and because no frat member matches the descriptions provided.
“We have no knowledge of these alleged acts being committed at our house or by our members,” the chapter, which said it had “been working tirelessly” to investigate the allegations, wrote in its statement. “Anyone who commits any form of sexual assault, wherever or whenever, should be identified and brought to justice.”
Ryan M. Kelly/AP Rolling Stone apologized Friday 'to anyone who was affected by the story' detailing a University of Virginia campus rape. Even close friends of Jackie have come to doubt her account after getting inconsistent stories, agreeing the woman likely suffered a traumatic experience — but not the one described.
“One of my biggest fears with these inconsistencies emerging is that people will be unwilling to believe survivors in the future,” Jackie’s friend, Alex Pinkleton, a rape survivor herself, told the Washington Post. “However, we need to remember that the majority of survivors who come forward are telling the truth.”
Jackie’s story prompted the frat to suspend activities, an investigation by the Charlottesville, Va., police and condemnation from University of Virginia president Teresa Sullivan.
In a statement released by Sullivan Friday in response to the Washington Post article and statements by Rolling Stone, she described the situation as a crucial learning opportunity for the school and one that’s not over yet.
"Over the past two weeks, our community has been more focused than ever on one of the most difficult and critical issues facing higher education today: sexual violence on college campuses. Today’s news must not alter this focus.
"We will continue to take a hard look at our practices, policies and procedures, and continue to dedicate ourselves to becoming a model institution in our educational programming, in the character of our student culture, and in our care for those who are victims.
"We are a learning community, and we will continue our community-wide discussions and actions on these important issues in the weeks and months ahead. We remain committed to taking action as necessary to bring about meaningful cultural change in our University community,” she stated.
With Nina Golgowski
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